1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of automatic material folding machines and, more particularly, to laundry-related machines for making multiple folds on flat cloth articles such as towels, diapers and pillow cases.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A major cost associated with institutional, industrial and commercial laundering is folding of the laundered articles so they may be easily handled, neatly stored and rapidly dispensed. Manual folding, when large quantities of the laundered articles are involved, as is often the situation, is very time-consuming and thus very expensive. There is, consequently, a substantial need for machines for automatically folding the laundered articles in a continuous flow manner. One such type apparatus is disclosed by the applicant in his prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,138. In accordance with such patent, workable and widely-accepted machines have been built and sold by applicant, for example, the "Iron Woman" automatic folding machine for small articles which will automatically make a center fold or a French fold and then a cross fold, and which is adaptable for use with laundered articles having sizes up to about 2 feet by 4 feet. These machines are particularly useful when large quantities of a single type and single-sized article, for example, towels, napkins and diapers, are involved. Unfolded laundered items are continuously fed into one end of the machine, and folded items are continuously dispensed or delivered from the other end of the machine.
There is, however, often a need or desire for an additional cross fold to be made in the articles, either for appearance or to further reduce the size of the folded article. Often a single cross fold, as accomplished by the present machine, is required for articles of a given type for one customer and an added cross fold is required for similar articles to be supplied to another customer.
Presently, provision for such an additional cross fold or provision for such an additional cross fold on an optional basis does not exist. Therefore, fully automatic folding is sometimes not available, and the benefits of the existing machines are somewhat diminished, the final folding necessarily having to be done manually.
Not only is it very desirable that new machines have such an optional additional cross fold provision as a feature thereof, but also that means be provided for modifying many of the existing machines, which are in use throughout the world, to make provision for such an added cross fold.